How AI Could Strengthen the Doctor-Patient Relationship: Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Senior Fellow in Health Policy and Global Affairs at Yale School of Public Health

·41 min·4 clips

Dr. Ashwin Vasan argues AI could strengthen the doctor-patient bond if physicians help design it.

The episode begins with host Lindsay Smith introducing Dr. Ashwin Vasan and the topic of AI in healthcare, specifically addressing physician concerns about AI harming patient-provider relationships. Dr. Vasan shares his personal journey into medicine, influenced by his mother, a neonatologist, and his father, an engineer, which shaped his interest in both bedside care and systems thinking. He discusses his early career working on HIV/AIDS initiatives in African countries, driven by a desire to address global health disparities. Reflecting on his role as NYC Health Commissioner during COVID-19, Vasan highlights the critical lesson that public trust is essential for effective public health, regardless of scientific advancements. He then shifts to AI, expressing hope that it can reduce administrative burdens like electronic health records, allowing clinicians to focus more on patient interaction and communication. Vasan explains that AI is already being used in areas such as medical imaging, clinical decision support, and back-end administrative tasks like billing and claims processing. He emphasizes that the impact of AI depends on implementation, warning that if driven by profit motives, it could increase healthcare costs rather than improve affordability. The conversation touches on the need for clinicians to understand health policy and communication skills to navigate technological changes. Dr. Vasan advises students and early-career professionals to stay connected to their core values and engage in shaping AI to serve the public good, stressing that human relationships should remain central to medicine. The episode concludes with a call for clinicians to question why technologies are implemented and ensure they benefit both providers and patients.

As heard by us

A grounded look at AI as a way to give clinicians more room for the human side of medicine.

Raise the Line frames artificial intelligence in medicine around a practical question: whether it can give clinicians more space for the human work patients feel most directly. Dr.

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You want AI to give clinicians more room for presence, judgment, and the person sitting across from them.

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